ABSTRACT:
This article analyzes the double movement of Rousseau's thought, which if on one side is sharply sensualist, especially in the first books of Emile, on the other hand finds the limit of that sensualism in the extreme consequences of the materialistic thought of Diderot and Helvetius. We point out the proximity of Rousseau with the thought that comes from the hypothetical statute of Condillac, but at the same time Rousseau's complete rejection of the assertion that "to judge is to feel", proclaimed by Helvetius. To the author of the Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar, judgment cannot be reduced to passivity of sensation, it is the result of active intervention of the I, a free and intelligent will that cannot be confused with the sensations.
KEYWORDS:
materialism; Rousseau; sensualism